The situation for Proton Pakistan seems to get worse with every passing month as the fifth car dealership announced its resignation from the company. Four dealerships, in September and October, have made the same announcement citing different reasons, including no information on delivery dates for the vehicles booked as far as 2020, repeated revision of prices despite late deliveries, and price revisions even after receiving full customer payments. Amid all this fiasco, fake news also circulated that Proton is wrapping up its operations in Pakistan, and now the start of 2024 is not so good for the company.
Fifth Resignation
As per details, South Motors in Karachi has announced that it has resigned immediately from its 3S dealerships status for the Proton brand. The dealership added that it decided after thorough legal and general discussion with all stakeholders.
“We express our disappointment over the management of the Proton brand by its assembler and distributor in Pakistan, M/S Al Haj Automotive Pvt. Limited,” the press release stated. Sharing the primary reasons behind the announcement, the management mentioned continued miscommunication over vehicle deliveries, time and again dishonoring of customer refund cheques, and tarnishing brand and dealer image due to Al-Haj’s business practices.
“All customers are informed that all pending deliveries and refund payments are the sole responsibility of Al-Haj Automotive; however, we stand by our customers in efforts to make the car assembler pay the refunds as soon as possible,” the statement read.
The dealer management asked the customers to visit the head office of Al-Haj Automotive for any queries about deliveries and refund of payments. The issue of nondelivery of cars, especially the Proton X70, is the biggest issue for the company, and dozens of consumers have protested and even taken legal action against it.
What is your take on closure of another Proton Pakistan dealership? Are you one of the company’s customer? Please tell us in the comments section.
Al Haj should be banned as did not do business well due earlier FAW brand and many customers suffered then also. Same is the fate with Proton and repeated incidents wrt Proton, Al haj can’t be trusted. Sorry for those customers who booked X 70 and failed to get delivery.
In a time when Proton is growing globaly, in Pakistan it is closing door, where he was planning to export globally.